Dealmakers Conversations

Dustin is an award-winning business journalist, bestselling author, and the chief content officer of Smart Business. Over the past 30 years, he has interviewed thousands of business and civic leaders, and helped more than 50 CEOs and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into books. A trained investigative politics reporter and former digital media entrepreneur, Dustin joined Smart Business in 1997 after serving as an editor at several daily newspapers.

McKeever “Mac” Conwell II is a software engineer by trade and was a former DOD contractor with a top-secret clearance. He was a two-time founder with an exit and a failure. Next Mac moved on to the venture capital world via the Maryland Technology Development Corporation as part of their Seed Investment Team.During his four years there, Mac amassed experience leading an initiative to create the Minority Business Pre-seed Fund, the first and only, at the time, state-backed pre-seed fund for women and minorities in the country. The program institutionalized the friends and family round for black-, women-, and minority-led startups and was subsequently funded long-term by the state of Maryland. In September 2020, Mac founded RareBreed VC, a pre-seed fund that invests in exceptional founders outside of large tech ecosystems.

Randy has nearly 35 years of experience in the public and private financing arena, with particular emphasis on small and minority business development. Mr. Croxton is Senior Vice President and co-founder of Meridian Management Group, Inc., which began in 1995.

As a Partner, Mr. Croxton is responsible for initiating, underwriting, structuring, closing, syndicating, and monitoring of investments for MMG Capital Partners.

Prior to joining BEDCO, he spent seven years with Commercial Credit Business Loans, Inc. (CCBL), where as assistant regional manager he was responsible for the management of more than $45 million in asset-based loans.